Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski criticized President Donald Trump’s megabill just moments after delivering the key vote to pass the legislation in the Senate.
The president’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in the Senate 51 to 50 on Tuesday, with Vice President J.D. Vance breaking the tie.
Murkowski was one of the Republican holdouts who voted “yes” on the legislation after GOP Senate leaders scrambled to make a series of changes to the bill to ease her concerns over its impact on health care and food assistance cuts in her state.
The Alaska lawmaker called the vote “agonizing” but told reporters who swarmed around her after she cast it for the legislation that the work was far from over.
“We do not have a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination,” Murkowski told reporters. “My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.”
However, House GOP leaders said they would vote on the legislation this week with the goal of getting it over to the president’s desk for his signature by the 4th of July, which is Friday.
Senate Republican leaders worked tirelessly in the final stretch to get Murkowski onboard with a series of provisions to lessen the substantial impact of Medicaid and food assistance cuts would have on her state.
Murkowski said she urged the White House to continue further with the process rather than sticking with the president’s “artificial” timeline.
However, asked why she voted for it if she thinks it needs more work, the Alaska lawmaker said that the looming end of the 2017 tax cuts at the end of the year would hurt people in Alaska, telling reporters of the bill, “kill it and it’s gone.”
GOP Senator Rand Paul, who was one of three Republican senators to vote against the bill, slammed its passage and made a dig at Murkowski, writing on X: “They chose subsidies and carveouts for the Senator from Alaska.”
Asked to respond on Tuesday after the vote by NBC News’ Ryan Nobles, Murkowski fired back.
“My response is I have an obligation to the people of the state of Alaska, and I live up to that every single day,” she said after delivering an intense glare. “I fight for my state’s interests, and I make sure Alaskans are understood.”
Murkowski argued she worked hard to take care of her state with its “more unique situations.”
“When people suggest that federal dollars go to one of our 50 states in a ‘bailout,’ I find that offensive,” she continued. “I advocated for my state’s interests. I will continue to do that, and I will make no excuses for doing that.”
She also acknowledged that there are Americans who will “not be advantaged” by the bill and slammed the process of rushing through a bill rather than trying to produce the one best for the country.
Paul was not the only one who seized on Murkowski’s “yes” vote to get the bill through the Senate.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said after the vote that Democrats fought and won to get a Medicaid special preference for Alaska stricken from the bill. He called the provision a “polar payoff.”
It harkened back to eight years ago, when Republicans were trying to repeal Obamacare, they slipped a provision into the bill to give Alaska access to federal money. It was dubbed the “polar payout.” In the end, Murkowski still voted against the Obamacare repeal anyway.
Early Tuesday, Senate Republicans were able to rework a carveout that would delay food assistance cuts for states like Alaska after the initial one did not appear to be compliant with Senate rules.
After another Medicaid provision was knocked out, Senate Republicans in the end doubled the proposed rural hospital fund from $25 billion to $50 billion to help appease Republicans like Murkowski, who raised concerns over cuts to the health insurance program for low-income Americans.
Schumer blasted the move on Tuesday after the bill passed. He called it a “fig leaf” and argued that creating a $50 billion fund to help prevent rural hospitals from closing due to funding cuts would not make up for $1 trillion being chopped from Medicaid.
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